Joey's Eagles gets unexpected funding

Nellie Grampp, who founded Joey's Eagles back in 1996, got a call from Rich Laverdure last month that literally put her in tears.

Wayne Witkowski

Nellie Grampp, who founded Joey's Eagles back in 1996, got a call from Rich Laverdure last month that literally put her in tears.

In this case, they were happy ones.

Laverdure is a board member of the Perryman-Keglovits Foundation that will hold its 11th annual Senior All-Star girls and boys basketball games pitting the best of the Mountain Valley Conference teams and Notre Dame tonight at East Stroudsburg University's Koehler Fieldhouse. The games originally were scheduled for Monday night, but postponed because of the inclement weather forecast Monday.

Laverdure called to tell her that part of the proceeds for the game will go to Joey's Eagles, which helps families with children facing serious illnesses.

"After Rich called me, I was in tears. That's how humbled I was," Grampp said. "The Lord continues to allow us to continue to keep helping. We are so humbled by the help of the community."

The other part of the proceeds continues to go toward the mission of the game: the fight against cancer. It has given proceeds in the past to the Dale & Frances Hughes Cancer Center and the Jimmy V Foundation. But Laverdure knew the needs of Joey's Eagles and made his recommendation to the board.

Laverdure said he thinks about Grampp and how she lost her son to cancer. She has a lot of energy "to make sure that it doesn't happen to another child," he said. "You can't stop a woman from doing what she does when that happens."

The girls basketball team plays at 6 p.m. and the boys at 7:30 p.m. The mission this year is to help in the battle against childhood cancer in the name of two young victims and former sports stars — Arthur Perryman and Al Keglovits. Laverdure said the game's namesake families also agreed to include Joey's Eagles as a recipient. Funding also comes from a summer golf benefit.

Tickets for the basketball doubleheader are a bargain — $5 for adults and $2 for children to see many great high school players, many on their way to college careers this fall.

Laverdure said the funding has grown from $200 in the early years to about $5,000 to $7,000, but with the tough economy, it's hard to go beyond that.

"It's not an easy task," he said.

Along with the gathering of funds, Grampp said the game will provide an ideal opportunity to reach a large audience that will get some to join the registry as bone marrow transplants. A local representative for "Be The Match" national bone marrow donor program will be present.

"One of our goals as an organization this year was to get this idea out at a large venue and we want young people and college people to join the registry. There is such a huge need that it is phenomenal," Grampp said, saying anyone in the 18 to 44 age group is welcome to register. "There is especially a need with the diverse population, which is less than 10 percent in this area.

"It's noninvasive — just a cheek swab for the DNA to match another in need in the bone marrow registry," Grampp said.

Her work does not stop there. A lot of Joey's Eagles support these days is devoted to Nellie Rojas, 16, a student at Stroudsburg High School recently diagnosed with leukemia. Rojas will try to attend the game.

"Her smile, her spirit are incredible," Grampp said passionately. "Her treatment for leukemia has failed and two days after the (basketball) game, she will go for a Haplo transplant, a t-cell, stem cell transplant from one of her parents. The family needs financial assistance."

Joey's Eagles helps families like this mainly with money for gas for their needed medical trips and anything available beyond that for medical care.

Grampp said she and Ann Adams, director of Bayada's Pediatric Home Care Services, met for the first time two weeks ago with the pediatric staff of Good Shepherd Hospital in Allentown to bring children's rehab services into this area for children with severe disabilities, such as traumatic brain injuries, children born with cerebral palsy who had received physical therapy under acute patient care and now are under outpatient facility treatment.

"The meeting was wonderful. They have it here for adults, but not children," said Grampp, who said the biggest obstacle is funding. "Many times it's at a huge deficit financially and places like Good Shepherd have a lot of large corporate sponsors because of their phenomenal name and reputation."

"We've just started doing this, but we've had a dialogue with them (at Good Shepherd)," said Adams.

Grampp said the Bayada administration staff in East Stroudsburg at Eagle Valley is helping her gather data for children in the area in need of this kind of services. "We're getting so much support," Grampp said.

Joey's Eagles will have their next family group support session for families with children afflicted with serious illnesses at 1 p.m. on April 13 at Shawnee Inn.

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